Winston wrote:I just remembered something. In 1983 - 1985, girls at my school in elementary and Junior High, did flirt with me and chased me around the campus, even if it was just for fun. I felt intimidated by it and didn't know what to do since I was shy and had no skills with girls. I even remember the name of the girl who flirted with me most aggressively, "Kristi Hillhouse". She was very cute. But unfortunately, I can't find her on Google.

So yes, back in the 80's, girls did flirt with guys. But in the 1990's, I never saw any girls flirt, not with me or anyone else. It seems that they stopped flirting in the 1990's and instead became angry and hateful of men, seeing them as creeps.

for me i believe -- and i know this sounds crazy it was EXACTLY 1994 when i saw the door close with regards to AW. in 1993 i actually had a woman slip me a note that read; i know you are dating maggie--but could we secretly have sexx--heidi. and we did. by '94/'95 i really never saw flirting initiated again and saw the coldness on a daily basis.

It wasn't like this in the 1980's and early 1990's -- that's for sure bud.

Check out this collection of commercials from the early 80's. Notice how people look and act in them. They seem cheesy by today's standards. But don't the people's faces look a lot more wholesome, natural and innocent than people do today? Can you see what I mean?

You all gotta understand something. Yes the 80's had better music, movies, TV shows, and healthier video games that were simpler and less addicting. And people were more genuine and real, in TV and in real life. Friends were easier to make too. There was less political correctness too, it wasn't as strict as today.

However, the 80's were not necessarily happier times. In America during the 80's, people did NOT like you for you. You still had to prove yourself to be accepted, or else others would put you down, judge you and look down on you. People were very shallow, judgmental and narrow minded back then too. They were allowed to be more open and honest about it. Arguments got physical and turned into fights outside more easily too. And people were mean and became more and more mean-spirited as the decade went on. I remember being bullied, picked up, even punched around, just because I looked wimpy and awkward and didn't know how to defend myself or stand up for myself.

So there were a lot of cons too. It wasn't a happy paradise by any means, though certain things were better. I certainly wasn't happier than now, though I do feel nostalgic about 80's music and TV shows, because I was so young and innocent back then. Back then, if you were isolated at home, you couldn't do anything about it. You couldn't go online and meet people or use dating sites to meet girls, etc.

Does anyone remember this about the 80s? When you liked a girl, your friends would urge you to "go for it" and approach her. Theyd say "come on go talk to her!"" It was as if it was totally ok to approach a girl you liked. And if you got shot down, at least you tried and showed guts. It wasnt seen as inappropriate or creepy. It was seen as a normal thing.

I dont think your friends today, even if you were in school, would urge you to approach a girl you like. Unless you are a girl of course. Its ok for a girl to approach a guy but not for a guy to make the first move. Kind of upside down.

Btw in spite of that, i dont remember the 80s as the good old days except that i felt so young and innocent back then. But i certainly wasnt happy. And people did not look happy back then.

I know the movies and TV shows of the 80s made people look campy and happy and fun. But in reality people fought a lot. They argued like hell. American families were constantly yelling and arguing with verbal shouting and drama. Until one of the family members broke down and cried. It was a huge drama fest.

But nowadays, people are too pussified and pacified and repressed to yell and argue with their family like back in the 80s. Im sure it happens but not like back then. People are too politically correct to speak their mind so freely now. Hence less fighting and yelling inside families. Plus people are too self absorbed on their smart phones too.

Do any of you remember all that?

Also back in the 80s if you openly criticized America, people would get angry and offended and feel the patriotic need to defend the honor of america. They may even challenge you to a fight while doing so. They would tell you to get out and go to a third world shithole. And that america is the best.

But nowadays its like fashionable and popular to criticize america, especially for its bad government policies and corruption. No one really gets offended anymore.

Hey she looks familiar. Wasnt she in the first karate kid movie with ralph macchio in 1984? She played his girlfriend i think, whom he got beat up for by her ex boyfriend Johnny, who then fought Daniel san in the all valley karate tournament. Lol. That was such a great movie, one of the best.

Winston wrote:Does anyone remember this about the 80s? When you liked a girl, your friends would urge you to "go for it" and approach her. Theyd say "come on go talk to her!"" It was as if it was totally ok to approach a girl you liked. And if you got shot down, at least you tried and showed guts. It wasnt seen as inappropriate or creepy. It was seen as a normal thing.

I dont think your friends today, even if you were in school, would urge you to approach a girl you like. Unless you are a girl of course. Its ok for a girl to approach a guy but not for a guy to make the first move. Kind of upside down.

Btw in spite of that, i dont remember the 80s as the good old days except that i felt so young and innocent back then. But i certainly wasnt happy. And people did not look happy back then.

I know the movies and TV shows of the 80s made people look campy and happy and fun. But in reality people fought a lot. They argued like hell. American families were constantly yelling and arguing with verbal shouting and drama. Until one of the family members broke down and cried. It was a huge drama fest.

But nowadays, people are too pussified and pacified and repressed to yell and argue with their family like back in the 80s. Im sure it happens but not like back then. People are too politically correct to speak their mind so freely now. Hence less fighting and yelling inside families. Plus people are too self absorbed on their smart phones too.

Do any of you remember all that?

Also back in the 80s if you openly criticized America, people would get angry and offended and feel the patriotic need to defend the honor of america. They may even challenge you to a fight while doing so. They would tell you to get out and go to a third world shithole. And that america is the best.

But nowadays its like fashionable and popular to criticize america, especially for its bad government policies and corruption. No one really gets offended anymore.

Any of you remember that too?

Agreed that it was considered normal then for a man to try to get to know a woman he was interested in. I had great luck cold approaching in the '80s.

Disagree entirely that criticism of the U.S. is more tolerated now than then. In the '80s you still had a semblance of the McGovernite left and Vietnam consciousness remaining in the U.S., and U.S. imperialism abroad was often denounced. Reagan crystallized this old left in opposition. There was a strong anti-nuke movement in the mid '80s, centering around the movie The Day After. U.S. mischief in Nicaragua and El Salvador was kept front and center by the left. And I don't recall being told to leave the country if you didn't like it as a common trope.

That started with 9-11, along with the current glorification of the military. But its roots are in the '90s when the Clintons and their ilk destroyed the old left with its viable critique of U.S. policies, and replaced it with frivolous identity politics, the insane end result of which we're now seeing.

The 1980's was a more innocent time when I still believed America to be "The best country in the world." These were the Reagan years of Cold War "us versus them" politics and although there were problems at home, society still retained a basic set of moral rights and wrongs. Gay marriage and LGBT rights would have been laughable pipe dreams back then.

But even then I sensed something was culturally amiss especially between men and women. As a high school student I knew that I was going to have to be an expat to spread my wings and get the hell out. I attributed the problem to race, but did not yet know it was my status as a male which was my real transgression.

I begrudgingly joined the military which was my only option to travel the world at the time. Although, I was primarily traveling in Latin America, a short trip to Europe changed my life forever. I was treated better there then in America and I secretly harbored a goal to make Europe my ultimate goal. Succeeding in America simply became my means to an end.

Looking back, the 1980s was the peak of living the lie of American exceptionalism. Things have gotten progressively worst since then and they will only get worse.

The late former Soviet Spy Yuri Bezmenov defected to America and predicted this in the 1980s:

Guess who else said he was treated better in Europe than in the U.S. -- Jesse Owens after coming back from the 1936 Berlin Olympics. While the U.S. I grew up in was a very different and better place, many of the country's pathologies have deep, long roots.

gsjackson wrote:Guess who else said he was treated better in Europe than in the U.S. -- Jesse Owens after coming back from the 1936 Berlin Olympics. While the U.S. I grew up in was a very different and better place, many of the country's pathologies have deep, long roots.

Yes, there is a significant list of African Americans who had similar epiphanies in Europe (as quiet as it's kept) including:

To me, it goes beyond living in better cultures and among better people, it is the satisfaction of knowing I get to do what some of my recent ancestors could have only dreamed about. Living in Europe is my middle finger to a system and culture that did everything it could to prevent, discourage, and demonize it.

America needs men to continue serving as slaves to family and obligation. I say let women increasingly assume that burden while we men enjoy our days wherever the heck we want. When the society dies off, it will be someone else's problem.

Gsjackson,
But in the 80s there was no alternative media and no internet. So the public never got to hear anything anti-american. There was no alex jones back then. So americans were still very patriotic and flag waving. But now a lot of people are anti-american, both in america and abroad, and the internet and alternative media have spread a lot of anti-american sentiment too. And we have so many documentaries like Zeitgeist and Why We Fight and NWO documentaries, etc. So theres no comparison right?

What about my point about the family yelling and infighting in the 80s thats not that common now? Did you notice that too?

Also i noticed that kids could make racial slurs during the early 80s. Such as "chinese japanese dirty wapanese" and make fun of my slanted eyes by imitating it. And also this common school joke: "Open the refrigerator, take out the coke, drink it, put it back in, close the door." Then after that, "me chinese, me play joke, me go peepee in your coke." After a few years, someone invented a comeback and it spread all across america. It went like this, "me american, me play smart, me not drink the peepee part." Lol. Does anyone remember that? Was that a nationwide joke? Or only a California one? Lol